SOCIAL CLASS IN UNITED STATES

Social Class in United States



Social class has been explored from multiple perspectives over the years. In early conceptualizations, social class was examined strictly within the context of socioeconomic factors, including income, occupation, and residential patterns. Later notions of social class included the analysis of selected psychological factors that produced class consciousness, often defined as personal identification with a particular social class. More recently, social class has been reconceptualized as an identity with cultural, sociological, and psychological implications. This entry examines social class through multiple perspectives—socioeconomic, class consciousness, and social class identity.

Social class has traditionally been defined as a socioeconomic construct, and social classes—including lower, middle, and upper classes—have been demarcated based on available government statistics on income. The income levels for determining social classes have changed over the years because of inflation.

For example, in 1985 an income of $15,000 or less for a family of four in the United States was considered poor or lower social class, whereas in 2007 the figure was $27,000. In addition to income, occupation has been associated with social class, with professional/white-collar occupations more closely aligned with middle and upper classes and hourly service and blue-collar jobs associated with lower social classes.

Social scientists have known for years that social class is more than a socioeconomic category. In the 1950s and 1960s, class consciousness was frequently used to refer to the psychological and sociological dimensions of social class; these dimensions include class identification, social outlook associated with class, and class opposition.

Class identification is a person's awareness of membership in a particular class which often includes such class entities as working class, middle class, and upper class. Social class outlook is roughly defined as a way of perceiving reality that reflects a person's social class. For example, working class, which frequently refers to people who hold blue-collar positions, is reported to have shared and coherent perceptions and assumptions about work, family, religion, and government. Upper class also possesses a shared outlook, which differs from working class in such areas as the value placed on manual labor and personal consumption patterns and expectations.

Finally, class opposition is the perceived conflict between one's social class and other social classes. The Marxist notion of social class opposition generally entails some form of class antagonism, hostility, or both, between working class and the affluent. From this perspective, this opposition is triggered by capitalism, the agent provocateur of class warfare.

Although social class appears to exist in all societies in one form or another, there are differences in the mechanics of social class in different nations. The opportunity for upward mobility, for example, differs worldwide based on how industrialized the country is.

In highly industrialized nations like the United States, mobility across social classes is greatest, and in less industrialized societies, like Bolivia and Ecuador, mobility is constrained. A father's occupation in a developing society is the strongest predictor of social class, whereas education is the best predictor in more industrialized and technologically advanced ...